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Health information into adult social care

A case study with Westminster City Adult Social Care.

Westminster City Council Adult Social Care aimed to improve the efficiency of admission and discharge from hospital.

Page contents

Background

At present there are several different information systems used by social care and hospitals. These systems are not interlinked or able to transfer information between each other. These issues can lead to delays in transferring individuals from hospital to an appropriate community care setting. For example, when an individual comes to A&E, sometimes they are admitted because only limited information about their living situation is available.

Additionally, if the individual is receiving a care package and is admitted to hospital, the care package will not automatically be stopped, creating an avoidable cost to adult social care (ASC). Care providers also receive medicalised discharge notes which do not cover a person’s social care needs. Assessments are repeated to inform a social care assessment of need. This places additional pressures on providers and affects service users.

What the project involved

The aim of the project was to produce and pilot a digital solution to share patient data from a health setting with a social care setting. It was anticipated that this would create a smoother admissions and discharge process by ensuring that the transfer of relevant information is efficient and complete.

This pilot sought to share information with three key stakeholders - Imperial College Healthcare Trust Respect Care (home care), Adult Social Care Bi-Borough Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Initially the creation of a new data platform was proposed in order to achieve these outcomes. Due to costs it was decided that using an existing platform (Care Information Exchange) would be a more viable solution.

Once the councils achieved information governance (IG) sign-off from North West London Digital IG group, ASC teams could receive training and access to the Care Information Exchange - already in use by patients and professionals at Imperial Hospital. A care provider was also asked to participate in the project, and committed to uploading care support plans onto Care Information Exchange once staff had completed training. 

Benefits of the health information sharing project

Clinical staff benefit from:

  • a better relationship between the ASC team and the hospital
  • a single platform for health and social care data which creates trust and transparency
  • improved collaboration between health and social care

Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea Councils are the first adult social care teams to go live on the Care Information Exchange.

Social care staff benefit from:

  • improved collaboration between health and social care
  • the ability to share information on a secure NHS platform and via NHSmail
  • a single platform for health and social care data which creates trust and transparency
  • the raised profile of ASC, who are now acknowledged as a key stakeholder in NHS digital developments

Patients benefit from:

  • their health and social care needs being held in one place, reducing multiple assessments
  • improved communication between the different professions helps individuals to feel that they are being listened to
  • the potential for reduced hospital admissions due to better information on their home environment
  • improved and more personalised discharge procedures

Lessons learned so far

Westminster City Council learned that:

 

  • timescales need to be realistic to scope out issues and create solutions - a minimum of two months should be allocated this process
  • the processes for IG compliance should begin as close as possible to the beginning of the project to ensure data can be accessed in a timely manner
  • two people from each team should be invited to team meetings to ensure the needs of the team are represented, and crucial information is shared
  • jointly developing process maps is helpful as it allowed the project team to easily see where improvements could be made - they also facilitated open discussions between stakeholders around better ways of working together
  • each project should have a risk register, with mitigating actions, which is regularly reviewed by the project team
  • reasonable time should be allocated to scope out the needs and requirements from digital providers, to ensure they are able to commit to the duration of the project

Download the case study

Last edited: 8 September 2021 11:51 am